Cyber risk management has become more challenging to manage and monitor as the cybersecurity landscape has developed and digitized. Numerous endpoints, regulatory changes, cloud applications, third-party service providers, and rapidly growing attack vectors have challenged cyber risk management processes. Yet, the success of a cyber risk management program directly correlates to business success.
A mature cyber risk management program creates several benefits, including protection against financial losses, enhanced brand reputation, operational efficiencies, improved compliance, and greater innovation. An organization that is hit with a cyber attack or is negligent in addressing security gaps risks a loss related to all the stated benefits. Proactive and robust cyber risk management addresses vulnerabilities and gaps before a cyber attack, ensuring business continuity and success.
What can security professionals do to enhance their cybersecurity processes? Conduct cyber risk analysis. This process helps to mitigate the risk posed by cyber threats by evaluating an organization’s exposure to cyber risks. CISOs and security teams can better understand what risks exist and enhance their decision-making process by performing cyber risk analysis,
Reasons to Conduct Cyber Risk Analysis
One key aspect of cyber risk analysis is identifying critical assets and infrastructure risks. This includes determining which systems and data are most important to the business and how a data breach might impact them. The next step is to assess the current level of risk to these assets, factoring in the strength of existing security controls, the likelihood of an attack, and the potential impact of an attack.
Based on this information, businesses can develop and implement strategies to reduce their exposure to cyber risks. This may involve implementing new security controls, improving existing ones, or conducting cyber risk assessments to identify and remediate vulnerabilities. Leveraging automated tools is critical: a platform like CyberStrong can perform automated cyber risk assessments to industry-standard and custom-built frameworks.
A second crucial aspect of cyber risk analysis is identifying areas of improvement and investment. This involves identifying the associated financial impact of existing cyber risks using cyber risk quantification. Whether your organization baselines on NIST 800-30 or the FAIR model, these quantification models help security leaders identify areas for improvement and translate cyber risk into financial terms - which is vital for board presentations.
By assigning a monetary value to cyber, CISOs will be talking in terms upper management is better equipped to understand and can directly tie the impact of the cyber process to business processes.
Overall, cyber risk analysis enriches the data your security team is working with and accurately depicts the current cyber risk posture. Through cyber risk analysis, your team may need to employ an improved incident response plan, prioritize investments in specific units/processes, or innovate to keep up with the changing cyber landscape.
Cyber risk analysis helps security professionals identify security gaps proactively so that organizations can continue to grow and mature their cyber resilience. Now, the question is, how do you conduct cyber risk analysis?
The Different Forms of Cyber Risk Analysis
Cyber risk analysis can be conducted in a variety of forms. Based on your company's size, industry, and maturity, you may conduct a combination of these assessments particular to your organization. The following are the several types of cyber risk analyses.
Vulnerability Assessment: This analysis involves identifying and evaluating an organization's systems, networks, and applications.
Threat Intelligence Analysis: This involves gathering and analyzing information about potential cyber threats, such as new strains of malware or malicious actors, to better understand the threat's nature and likelihood.
Penetration Testing: Pen testing involves simulating a real-world attack to identify vulnerabilities in an organization's systems, networks, and applications. This provides a realistic view of how an attacker might exploit those vulnerabilities in a real-world scenario.
Business Impact Analysis: This involves evaluating the potential impact of a cyber attack on the organization's operations, finances, and reputation. This includes cyber risk quantification and helps businesses understand their risks and prioritize their risk mitigation efforts accordingly.
Risk Management Framework Analysis: This type of analysis involves evaluating an organization's cybersecurity framework and processes to identify areas for improvement. This may include reviewing policies, procedures, and controls and making recommendations to enhance adherence to the risk management framework.
Performing a cybersecurity risk assessment is critical in proactive risk management; organizations can leverage automated platforms like CyberStrong to reap time and cost-saving benefits and streamline their risk assessment process for accurate insights.
Compliance Assessment: This analysis evaluates an organization's adherence to relevant regulations, standards, and best practices in cybersecurity. This helps ensure the organization meets its data protection and privacy obligations and reduces its exposure to legal and regulatory risks.
The choice of which type of cyber risk analysis to conduct will depend on the specific needs and objectives of the organization.
Enhancing Business Success with Cyber Risk Analysis
Not only will cyber risk analysis help your company better protect against cyber threats, but it will also enrich all cyber-related data for improved cyber risk management. A mature cyber risk management program with real-time visibility into its security posture will equip an organization with the tools to adapt to regulatory change, digital transformation, and changing attack vectors.
With regular cyber risk analysis, businesses can ensure that their security posture is up-to-date and aligned with the threat landscape and take steps to address any internal gaps. Real-time insights, including an up-to-date security posture, facilitates informed decision-making. This will set up CISOs to lead cyber-informed conversations with senior management and the Board of Directors.
Cyber risk analysis is critical to a comprehensive cybersecurity risk management program. Contact us for more information on how CyberStrong is an all-in-one cyber risk management solution powered by automation.
